Chelation

My son is 7, was dx'd with Asperger's at 5. He was so high-functioning that the academic preschool and K director where he went for 3 years didn't believe the diagnosis -- but she didn't believe he was particularly bright either, because at school he watched, mostly without participating. He never broke a rule because he was so anxious about "getting a talking-to." He had no friends even after 3 years at the same school with small classes and a very warm staff that emphasized social skills.

At home we saw a different child -- not remotely compliant, he fought us and argued and exploded over anything and everything. Any change at all (rearranging the furniture in his sister's room, cutting down an overgrown hedge) could lead to hours of violent screaming. Sometimes he was aggressive and did dangerous things like climbing on top of the refrigerator to get a knife and threatening me with with it.

At the same time it was clear he was very bright and creative, especially with language. He invented his own words, corrected my grammar at age 2, had a great sense of humor. But during K he was so miserable that nearly every day after school he had long explosive meltdowns. I had started Houston enzymes and the Feingold Diet at the end of preschool, and those had helped quite a bit, but not nearly enough. He was talking about wanting to kill himself and saying he did not want to live. When I video'd one of his meltdowns and showed it to the K diretor she was aghast -- he truly was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I took him to a psychiatrist who said I was doing a great job (yay me! lol) and that her assessment was that doctors were only starting to figure all this stuff out and that I should continue to pursue biomed stuff for him and not bother with talk therapy. I homeschooled him for half a year because the stress of K had been so overwhelming for him.

When he was 5.5 I started chelation, Andy Cutler's low, frequent dosing protocol. That first weekend he went up to a boy on the playground, introduced himself, and ran off playing with him for close to an hour. This had NEVER happened before. In fact, before Houston enzymes, when we went to a playground he would scream "I HATE OTHER PEOPLE!" if anyone else showed up, even if they were far away and not talking/looking at him. Before chelation, he would play by himself and ignore everyone; if a kid approached him, he'd not answer and run away.

Twenty months later he is in 2nd grade at a gifted school, interacting well with his mates and doing very well academically, especially in French and history. His cognitive skills and social skills both leapt up with chelation, although it didn't have the feel of something he was learning new, but something that had been not working before, like a broken arm that healed. Suddenly he knew how to wave at people, how to be considerate of other's feelings, how to be polite. Before chelation I tried teaching him these things, and even when I broke them down to very small bits (look at the other person's eyes, try to smile...) even though he was motivated to learn, he didn't really understand the point of any of it. It was like teaching someone to memorize bits of a language they know nothing of. Chelation changed all that.

He has not lost any of his facility with language, his sense of humor, his amazing memory, his unique way of looking at the world. In fact I'd say chelation has deepened all those things, as well as given him friendships and a sense of joy he had never been capable of before.

Anti-virals

Julian tested over 400 for Epstein-Barr virus (ref range <100) and over the ref range for Varicella, using Immunosciences lab. So last summer, when he was 6, he was part of a trial using Virastop enzymes (from Enzymedica). I started with 1 cap/4X a day and slowly increased to 4 caps/4X a day, away from food.

At the beginning it was similar to the Houston enzyme adjustment -- glimmers of improvement mixed in with aggression, pestering, explosions. Julian gets yeast at the drop of a hat and that was the case with Virastop too; I was giving GSE at higher doses and longer than usual, along with Candex and sometimes other anti-fungals as well.

As we went along the improvements became pretty dramatic. He seemed so mature suddenly -- doing things like closing windows when it rained without being asked, comforting his sister when she was upset (totally new behavior!), being flexible and accepting when things didn't go his way and he was disappointed (going to play Putt-Putt and we were rained out). Things that formerly would have guaranteed an explosion of fury were met with a shoulder shrug, and he was even able to express his feelings verbally rather than act them out destructively. He was much calmer and cognitively so much clearer -- he could focus on what I read to him, he got more interested in learning how to read himself, he was able to problem-solve in a whole new way.

In the middle of the study we ran out of enzymes. Within a day he was showing symptoms and behaviors we'd never seen before -- he was ticcing verbally (saying "War and Peace! War and Peace! over and over); repetitive motor tics, like slapping himself on the leg over and over; *very hyper; OCD stuff; in some critical way, he was not present. He didn't seem to be able to hear what we said to him. We couldn't leave him alone for an instant because he had no judgment at all and no impulse control. It was scary. I tried giving him Lauricidin and OLE and the behaviors reduced somewhat but he was still a mess.

When the Virastop came and he was back on them, all ticcing etc. stopped within two days. Soon he was back to the great improvements, so calm, so mature, so thoughtful and intellectually engaged. It was bizarre to have him so lost he couldn't carry on a simple conversation and within days we were talking in-depth about the Vikings and the history of various civilizations. The range of cognitive ability was unbelievable. Relatives said he was "transformed".

Some physical things: the bumps on his arms reduced by about 80%. Towards the end of the treatment (about 2.5 months) a lot of them burst and disappeared. About halfway through he got about 10 plantar's warts between his toes -- they burst and the skin peeled and they were gone. The skin on the pads of his fingers peeled off.

He did a course of Virastop this summer as well. At first I wasn't seeing much of anything, maybe because he's starting from a much better place, or maybe because viruses aren't as much of an issue. But after a few weeks, again he was showing much more social maturity, able to navigate big groups of kids he didn't know well with ease, having manners (!!), and generally a pleasure to be around. Yeast got to be an issue but was more manageable this time.

After about 6 weeks he started having trouble, pestering and explosions. I treated for yeast but that didn;t help. Eventually I noticed he was having outbursts 15 minutes after his Virastop dose, so I stopped it, and he was fine.

I'd put Virastop right up there with chelation and Houston enzymes for important treatments for Julian.

Update

It's a happy, happy day at my house. I took Julian in for a reassessment, because he's been doing so well -- and the shrink agreed, saying he no longer has any diagnosis. That no one would ever know he had ever had autism.

Here's the short version of his story (sorry for the repetition old-timers)...By the time Julian was 3 he was sick all the time and mostly miserable. Hit himself in the head a lot, cried a LOT, aggressive towards his baby sister, couldn't handle any self-care jobs like dressing himself, often didn't respond when his name was called or when spoken to, many many sensory difficulties. His language was advanced, but he would throw tantrums if someone's grammar was incorrect. He couldn't handle change at all, and once screamed for days because I rearranged the furniture in his sister's room. At preschool he didn't speak to anyone for months, and I don't think he ever initiated conversation in the 2 years he was there, but sat by himself sometimes watching the others play. At home he had serial meltdowns, terrible rages, and threatened to kill everyone in the family. He was suicidal during kindergarten.

Eventually he was diagnosed with Asperger's by a developmental ped, and with PDD by a psychiatrist.

When he was 4.5 I started him on the Feingold diet and Houston enzymes. They were incredibly important -- although he was still a mess most of the time, we saw plenty of glimmers of the child he was meant to be, moments of empathy, mornings when he would get dressed and ready for school by himself, some sense of humor.

When he was 5 I started chelating him, Andy's protocol, DMSA/ALA or ALA only. He responded on the first round, going up to a kid on the playground, introducing himself (!!) and going off to play. He'd never done anything *remotely like that before. He began spontaneously waving hello and goodbye for the first time. After 5 months of chelation, I did the ViraStop trial, which also gave tremendous improvement, socially and intellectually. His reading took off, he seemed much more comfortable in his skin.

I will say from the beginning of starting this biomed path it has been one giant rollercoaster. I'd see some great new improvement, and think whew, guess this autism thing is over! and then the next day he'd be worse off than before. Sometimes he'd be in bad shape for weeks at a time. But slowly, slowly, over many bottles of enzymes and a zillion supps and now 67 rounds, the good days are finally how he is every day.

Even though the dx is removed, we're not done yet. He still has intolerances to artificials, he still, STILL! gets yeast from not that much sugar. I expect to do 100 rounds, and probably some more courses of antivirals.

But it was a thrill to watch him walk into the shrink's office, comfortable with himself, chatty, smiling, wanting to show her a game he'd just gotten. And also -- the shrink now believes in biomed! She kept shaking her head and smiling, and saying, "It's just unbelievable!" So I gave her Andy's books and "Evidence of Harm", and she just may show up here.

Nell

[My thanks to Nell for allowing me to use her child's story on my site.]